More than 100 years ago, playwright Oscar Wilde, through the mouth of one of his heroes, said that England and America “today have everything the same, except, of course, the language.” It turns out that, according to linguists, he was not far from the truth. However, recently the two languages ​​have begun to move closer together.

Languages ​​change over time—some faster than others. Some languages ​​reflect changes in the world around them, highlights a new study published by the Royal Society of London. Universal and historical factors have an influence, and languages, as scientists have found, change at different rates.

The authors of the study used the Goole Books Ngram corpus database to analyze the use of words and expressions over the past five centuries in eight languages. They analyzed 8 million books, which, according to Google's own data, is approximately 6% of all published books. Google also scanned these books, thereby creating a corresponding database. Linguists have always been aware of the differences in language changes, but this time a giant Google database was examined, which in its volume far exceeded all previous research objects.

The group of scientists participating in this work turned out to be international in composition, which, paradoxically, caused it its own language problems.

The lead author of the study was Søren Wichmann, a Dane working at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany. His co-authors were Valery Solovyov, a linguist from the Kazan Federal University, located in the Republic of Tatarstan in Russia, and astrophysicist Vladimir Bochkarev, also from Kazan, whose interests include languages. This study was conducted at the Kazan Linguistic Laboratory.

The work was complicated by the fact that Vikhman does not speak Russian, and Bochkarev does not speak English.

Wichmann's wife sometimes served as a translator. When she wasn't there, they used Google Translate, which wasn't always helpful.

In this study, participants analyzed written languages, which are more conservative in their forms, and did not study spoken languages, for which the necessary data have not yet been collected. They mainly looked at how often words were used. Each verbal form was considered a separate word; For example, words like “park” and “parked” were counted as two different words.

The process they used is called glottochronology by linguists.

Language is shaped by culture

“One word that previously had a special meaning can acquire a broader meaning and replace another word that had an equally broader meaning,” Wichman noted. Sometimes it's just a matter of fashion, sometimes external events influence it. For example, in early English the word “hound” was used to refer to a dog. Today the word "hound" refers to a special breed of dog. The reverse process probably occurs with the word “vodka”, which sometimes replaces the word “liquor” (alcohol).

“Any important change in society is reflected in the frequency of use of words,” Wichman emphasized. According to the researchers, languages ​​generally change at the same rate, but this rate is usually measured in time periods such as half a century, unless something special happens, such as war. During wars, changes in the language's vocabulary happened more quickly as new words like "Nazi" were included, and people began to think about things they hadn't thought about before the war began, Wichman said.

During the Victorian era, at the height of the British Empire and a very stable time for Britain, the language remained fairly stable. With the onset of unrest and chaos in the 20th century, changes in the vocabulary of the language began to occur more rapidly.

Since about 1850, British English and American English have been the same - except that the British version was about 20 years behind. New words entered the lexicon of American English, but they appeared in Britain only 20 years later.

Then, starting in 1950, under the influence of the media, the two languages ​​began to move closer together. Today they are much more similar than before, Wichman noted.

Challenges associated with learning languages

I have always been interested in the question of why some languages ​​are more difficult for adults to learn than others? According to researchers, our languages ​​contain what linguists call a “kernel lexicon,” a list of words that make up 75% of written language. If you know these words, then you can understand most of the literary works. These are also the words that are less susceptible to change even as the language itself changes. The basic vocabulary of the English language contains less than 2,400 words. If you know them, then you can read 75% of the text. The basic vocabulary of the Russian language includes approximately 24,000 words. Although the English language has about 600,000 words in total, and Russian has only a sixth of this number, without knowing the 21,000 basic Russian words, texts written in Russian will be largely incomprehensible.

“The fact that a particular word may be in active use during a particular period does not mean that it must be new,” said Brian Joseph, a distinguished professor of linguistics at Ohio State University in Columbus. For example, the word “cupcake” currently has a similar tendency in the English language.

Sometimes words are combined, as is the case with the word “labradoodles.”

Definitions are also changing. Some words in Shakespeare's time meant one thing, but we use them to mean something else,” said David Lightfoot, a professor at Georgetown University in Washington, DC. The word "scientist" is present in the modern lexicon, but until the 19th century people in this profession were called natural philosophers.

Sometimes changes in vocabulary can tell us more than we think. In recent years, the word “divorce” has begun to be used more often than the word “marry,” Wichman noted.

Here is perhaps an even more telling example: the word “information” replaces the word “wisdom”.

Joel Shurkin is a freelance journalist based in Baltimore; He is the author of nine books about science and the history of science, and he teaches journalism at Stanford University, the University of California, and the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

First, let's determine which languages ​​are popular today.

Of course, English, which is unanimously considered the language of international communication.

Then Spanish, because it is spoken not only in Spain, but also in most countries of South America, and it is also one of the official languages ​​of the United States.

We must not forget about French, and not only because it is the official language of Canada, as well as English, as well as the main language of many African countries, but also because this beautiful and melodic language has many fans who study it just like that, “for the love of art."

German, despite the limited territory of application (officially - Germany and Austria), still does not give up its position and has a huge army of those who study or own it, apparently due to the fact that Germany has had a huge historical and cultural influence on other countries, and continues to flourish in economically and politically.

Let's not forget about our own Russian language, after all, it is spoken not only in the largest country in the world, but also in the former Soviet republics, as well as by emigrants who have left this very country and republics in all other developed countries. Let's include it in our list also in order to compare its complexity with other popular languages.

Now let's face it and admit that actually the first person on this list should be Chinese, which is statistically the most widespread language in the world, because it is spoken by 1.213 billion people, which, you agree, is a lot.

First, for the sake of fairness, we wanted to add the national language of India to our list - Hindi, which takes an honorable 3rd place in the list of the most common languages, after Chinese and English. But, unfortunately, it is of little interest to anyone outside of Hindustan. This situation arose due to the active role of the English language, which in the century before last became lingua franca- the language of international communication. That is, in India you can communicate freely in English, and you will always be understood.

Therefore, we include in our analysis Arabic, spoken in many countries in the Middle East, North Africa, South and Central America.

So, let's start analyzing the complexity English, Spanish, French, German, Russian, Chinese and Arabic. Let’s immediately make a reservation that we will analyze them from the position of a Russian-speaking person, and we will take into account data about the Russian language itself from the position of foreigners studying it.

1. The simplest of the above is considered... English language! There are no genders, cases, or word agreements; its grammar is quite simple. The words in it are short, as a rule, the verb and noun are denoted by the same word, verbs acquire a suffix only in the third person. Native speakers are calm about the mistakes of foreigners, because many people learn English as a second language. It is in English that 80% of the world's information is now stored, the bulk of technical and scientific literature is also printed in it, in addition, English is considered the language of the Internet.
For those who are just starting to learn English, it is important to understand that it is a language of structures, a language with a fixed word order. You just need to remember that the structure of each sentence is the same: “subject + predicate + minor members”, and in that order. You should also remember that every sentence must have verb. Well articles of course - they are the ones that cause the greatest difficulties for Russian speakers. In general, you can learn English quite quickly for everyday communication, but to master it... it takes more than one year. As they say, English is easy to learn, but hard to master.

Read more about the English language.

2. In second place you can put Spanish. Its vocabulary is similar to English as they share the same roots - Latin. Its spelling is simple - as it is written, so it is heard. The word order here is not fixed as rigidly as in English; auxiliary verbs are not needed. In addition, this language is brighter, richer and more interesting in terms of word formation - for example, diminutive suffixes are actively used (which simply do not exist in English). The tenses are at the same level of difficulty as in English, but the past is a bit messed up. In general, for a Russian person Spanish is easily perceived by ear, much easier than English, this is due to similar phonetics. Read more about the Spanish language.

3. French is also not very complicated, many of its words are similar to English and Russian, which is due to history. French is widely used and it is quite easy to find opportunities to learn and speak it.
The hardest thing about French is pronunciation and reading. It is difficult to get used to the fact that several letters in a word may not be read at all, and those that are read may be pronounced differently from how they are written. In addition, the pronunciation features of abbreviated forms are related and studied in parallel with basic grammar.
What about grammar? Verbs are conjugated by persons (there are both you and you) in different tenses and moods. In the traditional grammar system, there are 3 present tenses, 3 future tenses, 6 past tenses, 2 types of imperative mood, 2 types of conditional mood and 4 types of subjunctive mood. French is also distinguished by the abundant use of negative and restrictive phrases and the frequent use of the infinitive as a subject.

Despite its apparent complexity, the French language has many fans, even fans, and learning it is actually not that difficult. You can read more about French.

4. If you love long words and capitalized nouns - your language German. German is easier for people with a technical mind, it is quite schematic and predictable, its sentences are similar to an electrical circuit, where each subsequent link is connected to the previous one. It also looks like a spreading tree with many branches - rules and exceptions to them. You definitely can’t call it a poor or boring language!
German is difficult in its grammar, it has 4 cases and three genders of nouns, which, of course, are in no way related to the real qualities of the objects they denote (all articles are declined). According to Mark Twain, “In German a girl has no gender, although a turnip, say, has one.”
The German language also has a rather complex syntax, and the words in it can be very long, because... are formed by combining different words and adding suffixes and prefixes to them.

Despite the fact that its sound is considered a rough language, many people hear its lyricism and see its ornamental beauty. Although, let’s be honest: teaching him is not an easy task. As I said Richard Porson, "Life is too short to learn German." But, of course, this is an exaggeration. Read more about the German language.

5. Russian- this is certainly a rather difficult language. Even the Russians themselves have to learn it all their lives, and at school only a few get an “excellent” rating in it. Russian has 6 cases, while German has only 4, in general its grammar is very confusing, with many exceptions, exceptions to exceptions; The word order is not fixed, there are no articles, and the meaning is often conveyed by intonation.
Punctuation in Russian is quite confusing, but logical, but contains many rules.
It is difficult for foreigners to perceive Russian by ear due to its excellent phonetics - a large number of hissing and whistling sounds and a rolling “r”. Most people in the world consider Russian to be even more difficult than Chinese. Many people give up learning “tourist set” immediately after they try to pronounce "Hello" - Hello. Combination "hello" And "vstv" in one word is unpronounceable for most people.
Russian is a very emotional language. Its lexical content is rich and flexible - indeed, in no other language will you find so many diminutive and abusive words! For example: girl - girly - girl - little girl - wench - lass - damsel, and all of these are derivatives from one root. Compare English: girl - littlegirl, and that's it!
Much in Russian is not subject to logical comprehension, since it conveys mood and emotion.
For example:
- Do you want some tea?
- No, probably not.

So think about it, foreigners, whether we want tea or not.

6. Arabic no one will call it easy, but let's figure out how difficult it is. The first thing a beginner encounters and what scares him is the Arabic script, the Arabic script. However, the fear of the Arabic script is false, since it has only 28 letters that are connected to each other in print and writing. However, many letters have four different spellings - depending on their position in the word. Another difficulty (although essentially just a lack of habit) is the direction of writing from right to left. But stress in Arabic words is placed very simply and logically without any exceptions.
So what's so complicated about it, you ask? Firstly, the pronunciation of Arabic sounds corresponding to a particular letter is quite difficult for both Slavs and Europeans. This mainly concerns the reading of vowels, since it is believed that they are not there, but there are "vocalization". Arabic has 28 consonants and only 3 vowels - a, and, y- each of them can be short or long. But vowels are not reflected in writing. In addition, there are sounds there that have no equivalent in Russian. At the same time, words are read the same way as they are written.
Arabic grammar is also not encouraging - the verb usually comes before the predicate and the object. A verb has three numbers, so nouns and verbs must be learned in singular, dual and plural. The present tense has 13 forms. The noun has three cases and two genders.
You also need to take into account the fact that Arabic is the language of a completely different culture (for Russian speakers). Studying any European language, we will come across a lot of words that are familiar to us. And when studying Arabic, we will no longer come across a single familiar word.

Another problem with the Arabic language is that it has many dialects. Classical Arabic, the language of the Koran, was originally a dialect of Mecca (the territory of Saudi Arabia), and its adapted form, which is called “Modern Standard Arabic,” is now used in literature, newspapers, television and radio, in the mosque, as well as in the communication of educated people. Arabs from different countries. But the differences between local dialects are sometimes so huge that a representative of Morocco, for example, may not be understood by an Iraqi, and vice versa, although formally both speak Arabic.

7. There is an opinion that Chinese not that complicated at all. In fact, only its grammar is simple and even primitive - there are no endings, no suffixes, no prefixes.
What makes Chinese really difficult is the mass of synonyms and the terrible interchangeability of words, as well as the hieroglyphs themselves. Many hieroglyphs are often synonyms, and the synonyms themselves require learning more and more new hieroglyphs, and often completely different words are read identically.

At the same time, there are no special problems when reading hieroglyphs; they arise in oral speech, when the brain has to deal with a mass of associations and words that sound the same. Therefore, the Chinese themselves speak in short phrases, sometimes repeating everything they said. And for a native speaker of the Slavic group, even just saying one Chinese sentence with correct, understandable pronunciation is already a great achievement, for which you need to work and work.
As for the simplicity of Chinese grammar, it is more than offset not only by complex writing, but also by extremely complex pronunciation with 4 tones, extensive homonymy, homophony, and homography. Thus, Chinese is in last place on our list, and you can read more about it.

So, we looked at 7 popular languages ​​today and ranked them by degree of difficulty. But which language will be easier or more difficult for you is a separate question that depends on many factors. If, for example, you already taught English at school, like most Russians, then you will find it easier to speak related languages ​​- German, Spanish, French.

if you have strong motivation, for example, the intention to move to another country (read about emigration), then of course the language you are learning will be easier for you - your emotional mood, interest in the life of the country, the press, television, the desire to watch films and TV shows in the language will affect you.

More than 100 years ago, playwright Oscar Wilde, through the mouth of one of his heroes, said that England and America “today have everything the same, except, of course, the language.”

It turns out that, according to linguists, he was not far from the truth. However, recently the two languages ​​have begun to move closer together. Languages ​​change over time - some faster than others. Some languages ​​reflect changes in the world around them, highlights a new study published by the Royal Society of London.

Universal and historical factors have an influence, and languages, as scientists have found, change at different rates. The authors of the study used the Goole Books Ngram corpus database to analyze the use of words and expressions over the past five centuries in eight languages. They analyzed 8 million books, which, according to Google's own data, is approximately 6% of all published books. Google also scanned these books, thereby creating a corresponding database.

Linguists have always been aware of the differences in language changes, but this time a giant Google database was examined, which in its volume far exceeded all previous research objects. The group of scientists participating in this work turned out to be international in composition, which, paradoxically, caused it its own language problems.

The lead author of the study was Søren Wichmann, a Dane working at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany. His co-authors were Valery Solovyov, a linguist from the Kazan Federal University, located in the Republic of Tatarstan in Russia, and astrophysicist Vladimir Bochkarev, also from Kazan, whose interests include languages.

This study was conducted at the Kazan Linguistic Laboratory.

The work was complicated by the fact that Vikhman does not speak Russian, and Bochkarev does not speak English. Wichmann's wife sometimes served as a translator. When she wasn't there, they used Google Translate, which wasn't always helpful.

In this study, participants analyzed written languages, which are more conservative in their forms, and did not study spoken languages, for which the necessary data have not yet been collected. They mainly looked at how often words were used.

Each verbal form was considered a separate word; For example, words like “park” and “parked” were counted as two different words.

The process they used is called glottochronology by linguists. Language is shaped by culture “One word that previously had a special meaning can acquire a broader meaning and replace another word that had an equally broader meaning,” Vikhman noted. Sometimes it's just a matter of fashion, sometimes external events influence it.

For example, in early English the word “hound” was used to refer to a dog. Today the word "hound" refers to a special breed of dog.

The reverse process probably occurs with the word “vodka”, which sometimes replaces the word “liquor” (alcohol).

“Any important change in society is reflected in the frequency of use of words,” Wichman emphasized.

According to researchers, in general, languages ​​change at the same rate, but this rate is usually measured in time periods such as half a century, unless something special happens, such as a war.

According to Vikhman During wars, changes in language vocabulary occurred more quickly as new words like "Nazi" were included and people began to think about things they had not thought about before the outbreak of hostilities, Wichman noted.

During the Victorian era, at the height of the British Empire and a very stable time for Britain, the language remained fairly stable. With the onset of unrest and chaos in the 20th century, changes in the vocabulary of the language began to occur more rapidly. Since about 1850, British English and American English have been the same - except that the British version was about 20 years behind. New words entered the lexicon of American English, but they appeared in Britain only 20 years later.

Then, starting in 1950, under the influence of the media, the two languages ​​began to move closer together. Today they are much more similar than before, Wichman noted.

I have always been interested in the question of why some languages ​​are more difficult for adults to learn than others?

According to researchers, our languages ​​contain what linguists call a “kernel lexicon,” a list of words that make up 75% of written language. If you know these words, then you can understand most of the literary works. These are also the words that are less susceptible to change even as the language itself changes.

The basic vocabulary of the English language contains less than 2,400 words. If you know them, then you can read 75% of the text. The basic vocabulary of the Russian language includes approximately 24,000 words. Although the English language has about 600,000 words in total, and Russian has only a sixth of this number, without knowing the 21,000 basic Russian words, texts written in Russian will be largely incomprehensible.

“The fact that a particular word may be in active use during a particular period does not mean that it must be new,” said Brian Joseph, a distinguished professor of linguistics at Ohio State University in Columbus.

For example, the word “cupcake” currently has a similar tendency in the English language. Sometimes words are combined, as is the case with the word “labradoodles.” Definitions are also changing. Some words in Shakespeare's time meant one thing, but we use them to mean something else, said David Lightfoot, a professor at Georgetown University in Washington, DC. The word "scientist" is present in the modern lexicon, but until the 19th century, people in this profession were called natural philosophers.

photo: primuzee.ru

Sometimes changes in vocabulary can tell us more than we think.

In recent years, the word “divorce” has begun to be used more often than the word “marry,” Wichman noted. Here is perhaps an even more telling example: the word “information” replaces the word “wisdom”. Joel Shurkin is a freelance journalist based in Baltimore; He is the author of nine books about science and the history of science, and he teaches journalism at Stanford University, the University of California, and the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

Found a mistake? Select it and press left Ctrl+Enter.

There is an opinion that the English language is very simple and mastering it is not difficult. Probably, if this were true, then, even with all the disadvantages of Russian education, many would master the language. But that's not true. A very small percentage of people, graduating from school, and sometimes even university, master English, at least at a basic level. And there are many reasons for this. Let's try to look at the main ones:

Ambiguity of the teaching system

There are a great variety of methods for learning the English language, as well as the words in it, and new methods appear every year. However, upon closer examination, you realize that they are all similar to each other or have a similar idea at their core. The main methods of language learning can be divided into 2 groups - classical and communicative. The communicative method looks more interesting, but often our respected teachers do not miss the opportunity to add something from the classical language learning course to it. Namely grammar. Among the disadvantages of the communication system, it is worth noting the need to know basic grammar rules. What about the classical teaching system - its main drawback is a huge number of boring rules, coupled with a significant lack of speaking practice.

Serious differences in the grammar of Russian and English languages

Russian grammar, and especially punctuation, is considered one of the most complex in the world. But for native speakers it is not difficult to master it; it happens by itself. As for the grammar of the English language, there are primarily differences due to the philosophy of the language. The main problems in mastering grammar arise with tenses, verbs, prepositions and articles.

There are as many as 12 tenses in English, versus 3 in Russian, but we always use different particles and additional words to clarify the meaning. - For example "What are you doing now?" And “What are you even doing?”. In English there is a tense for each case. - For example “What do you do?” And "What are you doing?".

As for verbs, this is the main wealth of the English language. There are a lot of verbs. But the worst thing is not the quantity, but the fact that there are irregular verbs whose forms you will have to learn, and verbs like “set”, “get” and “way”, which have many different meanings. For example, the verb “set” has 44 of them. And if you want to master spoken English at a good level, you will also have to remember phrasal verbs, of which there are many.

Next on the list are prepositions and articles. As for prepositions - nothing complicated, just some of them do not coincide with the use of prepositions in the Russian language. Phrasal verbs are also formed in conjunction with prepositions. But with articles it’s more difficult. They simply don’t exist in the Russian language, which means that we simply have nothing to compare with, find differences, etc. You will have to come to terms with this and master the rules for using articles, which is not so difficult to do. By the way, you will be forgiven for any mistake related to the use of articles, since some of the subtleties of their use are almost incomprehensible to a foreigner.

Imbalance of theory and practice in teaching.

For some reason, teachers in our secondary schools place too much emphasis on the grammatical component. At best, 15 percent remains for the conversational part. Dry grammar is boring, and with insufficient examples, it is also incomprehensible. Schoolchildren have 2 options left - cram or copy from somewhere. This situation is also not new at universities. As a result, people who have spent an average of 10 to 15 years studying English cannot speak it.

We were all once small children and also mastered our native language. Without any rules, we simply learned from adults, repeated, invented, experimented, etc. As a result, at the age of 6-7 years, when we arrived at school, we could communicate freely without knowing any (or almost any) rules. With English it’s the other way around - first we’re bombarded with grammar, and only then, maybe, we’ll start talking. It is not surprising that we have a very high percentage of people who cannot overcome the language barrier.

This all sounds very scary, but there is no need to be afraid. All the difficulties that we have considered are very easy to get around. To achieve results so that learning English is interesting and exciting, you need only 2 components:

1. Your desire and desire to master the language. Good motivation has never harmed anyone, set a goal and go towards it.

2. A suitable teacher. If you are good with grammar, focus on practice. If you need to improve your grammar, find a suitable teacher who can give you the optimal combination of theory and practice.

Learn the language and enjoy your success!

Learning English, like any foreign language, is associated with a number of difficulties. Where do these difficulties come from and can they be overcome? This vital question for any person learning English will be discussed.

Reason one: differences in mentality. It is obvious that the worldviews of a Russian and an Englishman are very different. Accordingly, language, as one of the embodiments of the national worldview, is mastered along with new views on life, which can be quite useful, but requires additional effort. Differences in linguistic pictures of the world are especially visible in folk wisdom - proverbs and sayings, which quite often cannot be adequately translated. For example:

The proof of the pudding is in the eating– To find out what the pudding is like, you have to taste it (literal translation).

Reason two: differences in the articulatory base. When teaching pronunciation, a good teacher will certainly pay attention to those sounds that are atypical for the Russian language. It is these that you should spend time working on. For example, English [r], which is pronounced differently than Russian [r]. Another stumbling block is interdental sounds, which many Russian speakers, especially adults, are simply embarrassed to pronounce.

Reason three: different grammatical systems. The English language differs from Russian in the absence of a developed case system. However, this is offset by numerous aspects and verb tenses. The English language is strong in verbs, the forms of which Russian speakers have to learn for quite a long time, since often there are no similar differences in our native language. For example, the Russian sentence:
I wrote a letter
Can be translated in three ways if there is no context
I've written the letter. or
I wrote the letter. or
I had written the letter.
And the more exercises you do on using and comparing tense forms, the stronger your knowledge will be.

Reason four: syntactic differences. In the Russian language such wonderful phrases as “Evening” are possible. Unlike Russian rules for constructing sentences, English syntax does not allow such gems, but requires the mandatory presence of a subject and predicate.

So our “Evening” in English will be “Night was falling”. The word order in interrogative sentences and the use of auxiliary verbs require special attention.
These are the main difficulties that prevent native Russian speakers from learning English. Now that you know what to pay attention to when working on your English, you will achieve good results and your Russian language will not interfere with your English.

Read more about the problems of learning English and ways to solve them on the So-Easy speaking club website!